Seoul, Aug. 30 (Reuters): North Korea said today the hardline US stance at the Beijing nuclear negotiations meant there was no point in holding further talks and left it with no choice but to enhance its nuclear deterrent force.

China — North Korea’s closest ally and organiser of last week’s six-way talks — sought to keep the momentum for dialogue going. A North Korean spokesman told the north’s KCNA news agency that Washington had adopted a harder line at the talks and had demanded Pyongyang “drop its gun first”.

“How can the DPRK trust the US and drop its gun'” the spokesman said, using the initial letters of the north’s official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.